World Player of the Week: Falcao - Atletico Madrid

Is Radamel Falcao the best striker in the world? This is a question many football followers are asking themselves following a stunning week for the Atletico Madrid hitman.

The 26-year-old bagged two hat-tricks in the space of just four days as Atletico sent out a warning to the rest of Spain and Europe with crushing wins over Athletic Bilbao and Chelsea.

Last Monday in La Liga, three clinical strikes thumped the Basques 4-0 at the Vicente Calderon. Then, on Friday, Falcao took Atletico to European Super Cup glory over Champions League holders Chelsea with two one-on-one finishes and a delightful left foot curler into the top corner.

Having found the back of the net a whopping 114 times in club football since the start of the 2009-10 season, there is no doubting the pedigree of this world class master marksman.

Congratulations to Falcao, Goal.com's 172nd World Player of the Week winner!

Honourable Mention

Leroy Fer - Twente

The Netherlands midfielder is the talk of Twente right now after inspiring the club to two big wins last week. His double and 116th minute winner defeated Bursaspor in the Europa League, while his 90th minute penalty downed VVV.

Federico Higuain - Columbus Crew

The older brother of Real Madrid star Gonzalo recorded four assists this week. Columbus Crew came back from a goal down twice to record a pair of 2-1 wins and Higuain set up every goal to take his side into a playoff position.

Szabolcs Huszti - HannoverThe Hungarian midfielder was the star of the show in the big Bundesliga derby at the Volkswagen Arena, setting up all four goals as Hannover smashed Wolfsburg 4-0. He also scored twice in the Europa League.

Giampaolo Pazzini - AC Milan

In his starting debut for Milan following his high-profile cross-city swap with Inter's Antonio Cassano, Il Pazzo bagged a poacher's hat-trick in the 3-1 win at Bologna - including a cheeky backheeled effort.

Robin van Persie - Man Utd

The Dutch superstar single-handedly saved United from a humiliating defeat at Southampton by scoring twice in the last three minutes to complete a dramatic hat-trick and clinch a 3-2 win at St Mary's.

On Sunday, we encouraged our readers to nominate their choices for the best player of the week. Here are some of the comments we received:

Wisdom Iyke5 agreed with our decision to name Falcao as Goal.com World Player of the Week.

"Falcao was the best this week. Two games, two hat-tricks, and all six of them great goals."

El fenomeno7 summed up the feelings of most Goal.com users.

"There shouldn't be any voting. Just name Falcao the winner, no one will disagree."

cakeluv AK3 stressed that not even Messi and Ronaldo worshippers could deny Falcao.

"As much as you people love Ronaldo, Messi, Ibrahimovic or any other player, there's only one option this time...FALCAO."

Robbiemagica was one of the very few readers to not nominate Falcao as winner, instead putting forward Milan hat-trick hero Giampaolo Pazzini.

"Pazzo was like a clone of Pippo Inzaghi against Bologna. Amazing three goals to get Milan out of their crisis."

"Song is my World Player of the Week. Arsenal kept another clean sheet because you left the club. Thanks Alex for leaving."

Each week our worldwide team of editors will put forward a selected candidate, as chosen by Goal.com International, who deserves recognition for achieving something special that matchday.

You can also help us choose a worthy recipient of the weekly accolade by leaving your nominations and comments here. Your suggestions will be taken into consideration.

It won't necessarily be the best player in the world - at least not usually - but whoever we crown will have accomplished something amazing. It might be for a particularly awesome performance or for something praiseworthy off the pitch - either way, the person in question deserves special attention...